Book Boffin

Print Book and eBook Self-Publishing for Creative Entrepreneurs

Tips to Get Glowing Endorsements for your Book

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Tips for Getting Glowing Endorsements for your Book

Endorsements (or blurbs) can be a real credibility boost for your book. When you find the right person that is highly relevant for your market, their endorsement can provide word-of-mouth marketing that is leveraged to the degree of stardom of that endorser.

So aim high and just ASK.

When looking for endorsements for your book, keep in mind the most successful endorsements are usually given by someone influential in your book’s genre (particularly in fiction) or a thought-leader of the industry or niche in which you are writing about (which works well for non-fiction books).

Endorsements are not the same as reviews. Although less leveraged than endorsements, reviews are incredibly valuable to authors. Reviews are given by fans of your work or readers of your books. They are usually unsolicited, impartial and you probably don’t know the reviewer personally.

And in the same way the right celebrity endorsement can provide the break-out success you are hoping for your book; reviews en-masse can become the catalyst for a book’s longevity or quick death.

So how do you find the right person to endorse your book? Here’s some tips for finding the right endorsement:

  1. It’s all about the name – social proof is a powerful force in marketing. A nod from a high profile person attaches their brand to your work. So for this same reason, choose wisely.
  2. When it’s not ‘all about the name’ – see what I did there? Yep… totally contradicted myself, because us humans don’t always use our logical brains.
    A glowing endorsement from a lesser known person can sometimes be more effective at selling your work than a ‘Meh’ endorsement from a well-known person. You be the judge when deciding which endorsement should take up the premium real estate in your book.

When you find someone who agrees to endorse you, here’s some tips on how you could provide some framework for the endorsement:

  1. Is there a particular angle you would like them to cover that highlights an area of the endorser’s expertise that also has the most relevance to your book? Let them know what you are looking for, they will probably find it helpful to be given this direction.
  2. Ask for their title, in relation to their endorsement of your book. They may wear many hats (professionally) and may keep some separation between them, so always check with them what title they would like to use with their name in relation to the endorsement.
  3. The endorsement does not have to be long. A well articulated one to two paragraphs is sufficient to provide potential readers with enough proof as to the quality of your work and what they will gain by learning from you.

And here are some ideas in how to keep the endorser/author relationship strong, positive and in flow:

  1. Provide the book in the format they want to read it in. If you are asking someone to take the time to read your book, give it to them in the most reader-friendly way possible, for them.
  2. Don’t send them a half-done book. Send your book once it has been copy-edited and proofread. Asking them to read a book full of typos and incorrectly structured sentences will interrupt their reading flow and may affect how glowing the endorsement ends up.
  3. Communicate your expectations – When you give them the book, let them know up front when you would ideally would like the endorsement sent to you, and give them all the ways they can send it to you, for example: email address, Facebook PM etc. And provide them with sufficient time to carve out some space in their schedule to read your book and give thought to the endorsement – I would recommend 6-8 weeks notice.
  4. Remind them of the deadline – don’t wait til the due date to ask them where the endorsement is. Send them a note a couple of weeks prior to remind them of the date you will need the endorsement given to you in order to stay on track with your publishing schedule.
  5. Thank them. They have done a nice thing for you. Their brand of fairy dust liberally sprinkled over your book may just give your book the amplification it needed to boost it beyond the boundaries of your influence. Thank them sincerely and send them a copy of the book once it’s published.

If you are interested on further reading about obtaining endorsements for your book, this Writer’s Digest article provides excellent perspective on how to approach this process.

Finally, a book blurb is not the same as a book description. We cover book descriptions in detail here: http://bookboffin.com/book-descriptions-book-synopsis/